Archive for category Maddow
This “Obamite” Is Outraged About the AP Phone Records Scandal. Why Aren’t Republicans?
Posted by Cliff Lyon in Maddow, This Blog on May 16, 2013
Finally the GOP has a scandal with legs; an elephant’s wet dream compared with Benghazi and the IRS hysteria. I know, I’m furious! Outraged!
In the process of investigating a leak that was responsible for an AP story in June 2012, on a thwarted Al Qaeda terror plot, the Department of Justice (DOJ) secretly obtained the phone records of AP journalists.
DOJ head AG, Eric Holder apparently recused himself from the FBI investigation “to avoid any potential appearance of a conflict of interest.” The investigation has been conducted under the direction of the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and the supervision of the deputy attorney general, James M. Cole.
So why is the GOP/Roger Ailes not drooling? A casual observer might suppose the GOP is suddenly reluctant to remind us of their institutional hypocrisy. Obama, as Senator, supported a federal shield law and co-sponsored 2007 legislation that was eventually killed by a Republican filibuster.
No, there must be another reason. Since when have Republicans EVER shied away from hypocrisy? Perhaps they realize it’s perfectly legal thanks to the Great Adventures of Bush and Cheney.
“The explanation might be, in part, the angry cries from Republican members of Congress over the Associated Press reporting that appears to have triggered the Justice Department probe. In May 2012, the AP described how a double agent had infiltrated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen and neutralized a plot to bomb an airliner. Multiple Republicans insisted at the time that the leak might constitute a criminal case and demanded a tough FBI investigation.
Their anger was largely directed at the alleged leakers, unlike the cries of “treason” directed at the New York Times when the paper published sensitive information about Bush-era anti-terror surveillance. Even so, conservatives are now in the odd position of implicitly defending the media’s rights against the imperative of national security secrecy, a cause that didn’t interest them much when the FBI sought media phone records during the Bush years.” Source
It may well be that there is no one reason. Republicans have attacked Obama for virtually EVERYTHING he has done or thought about doing, whether real or imagined. Over the past 5 years, they’ve covered every position. There aren’t any positions left that don’t require doing a 180 on something they whined about in the past. Republicans have no clothes.
Did Obama know about the acquisition of the AP phone records? Probably not. But I don’t care. Now would be the time for him to fire some folks and pass a new shield law.
Real journalism from Democracy Now!
AP Monitoring Raises Fears of Government Overreach: How Far Will Obama Go to Crack Down on Leaks?
Chris Hedges: Monitoring of AP Phones a “Terrifying” Step in State Assault on Press Freedom
AP Reporter Appeared on Democracy Now! While Being Targeted By Justice Department Dragnet
Utah At Forefront of National, Political Realignment: Run Rocky Run!
Posted by Cliff Lyon in 2012 Elections, Bill O'Reilly, Climate Change, Economic Exploitation, Maddow, National Politics, Occupy Wall Street, Party Politics, Rachel Maddow, Rocky Anderson, Salt Lake City, Sean Hannity, The Constitution, Torture, utah on December 11, 2011
I think I’ve just eye-witnessed the spontaneous birth of a new political party and in the most unlikely of places – Utah.
But, hey. Why not Utah? Are we not the home of political mavericks?
Did we Utahns not replace a senior, sitting senator at convention (Bennett R-UT) with an insane, tea-party nobody? Did we not also deliver the only sane GOP candidate for president (Jon Huntsman)?
That’s right. So no one should be surprised widely popular, 2-term, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson is running for President. And its about time. Even if this time around is just a warm up, it will be fun.
Follow @PresidentRocky
Here’s why: How many progressive, red-state mayors can say they handed Bill O’Reilly his ass on O’Reilly’s own show …/anderson-spanks-bill-oreilly/, or provoked Sean Hannity into to a live debate televised on Fox News! (…that one turned into a professional wrestling match. Make some popcorn its a 2-hour brawl.)
So the news of Rocky’s intentions leaked far too soon and Rachel Maddow got the scoop and the new party’s name – Justice Party – was chosen on Facebook in the hours before the announcement on Maddow.
That was two Wednesday’s ago. The next day, folks began to gather at Rocky’s house in Salt Lake. Paul Zieitz came out from Washington and a nascent steering committee kicked into high gear. The first state committee was tele-formed and a plan to get on the ballot in all fifty states was hatched around a dining room table and a speaker phone. (If you would like to form a committee in your state, contact Paul (end of press release)
This is not at all how I expected a third party to form. I always thought it would be a well funded, meticulously-planned, institutionally sponsored effort. Instead, it just happened. And like the Occupy Movement, no one owns it and it has no platform…yet.
The founding and interim steering committee are made up of the most unlikely characters: more women than men, all busy and passionate, but otherwise ‘unremarkable.’
The first, monumental task ahead is to get on the ballot in California. That means 103,000 Justice party registrations or approx 200K signatures BY JAN 2…two weeks? If that miracle happens, the other 49 states should be a cinch. Stranger things have happened.
Hey, people are winter camping in public parks in every major city in the world and one of the major American political parties seems about to crash and burn along with its media arm (Murdoch). A political vacuum is forming.
Its crazy. Everything is crazy. The rules are changing. A Dkos recommend can change the world. But it feels right and it feels unstoppable.
Hobbits PUNK’d! Herman Cain Campaign is Hoax on Republicans (like Carl Wimmer)
Posted by Cliff Lyon in 2012 Elections, 4th Estate (Media), Carl Wimmer, Conservative, Entertainment, Herman Cain, Laugh, Maddow, People Are Nuts on November 5, 2011
Punking the Hobbits
While Herman Cain’s popularity among the most ignorant group of people (Republicans) on the planet (I call them Hobbits), and the rest of us were getting our panties all in a bunch over it, Rachel Maddow figured it out… PROOF she is the smartest political pundit in the world.
“But at this point in the campaign no one has figured out that this is not politics. This is art.”
The evidence:
- Still has no real campaign team, no state offices
Herman Cain's Campaign is SMOKIN!
- Claims his 999 plan came from bank teller on Chagrin Blvd in Pepper Pike, Ohio?
- 999 is also the tax structure of SimCity
- Sexual harassment settlement dated 9/99
- Chapter 9 of his book is called “45-A Special Number” (4+5=9)
- Compared himself to Black Walnut flavored Häagen-Dazs, for it’s ‘staying power,’ doesn’t exist anymore
- “Koch brother from another mother”
- Closed first GOP debate with a verse the Pokemon movie theme song
- The weird smile that follows his campaign managers smoking a cigarette
...and a man on a horse was just a man on a horse unless...
- The ‘He Carried Yellow Flowers’ Campaign video
- This Stossel punked HARD in this interview on abortion
Who’s been punked so far?
- Hobbits and Tea Baggers
- Koch Brothers
- Fox News
- Brewski/Rush Limbaugh
Reminds of the Punking Carl Wimmer did on Herriman Hobbits.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
I can think of a few more:
…to be continued…
Should have known when we saw this.
Orrin Hatch Caught in Big LIE(s), Again. Role model for Utah’s Children?
Posted by Cliff Lyon in Ethics, Liars (politics), Lying, Maddow, Orrin Hatch, Political Corruption, Republicans, utah, Utah Politics on March 3, 2010
Orrin Hatch Liar
Orrin Hatch is a liar. A Liar is a person who tells LIES. Orrin Hatch has been telling demostrable lies for as long as I have been paying attention. Sadly, Utah Republicans continue to re-elect this liar. If Washington is broken, as much of the credit goes to Utah Republicans as the liar named Orrin Hatch himself.
I ask myself, do the Utahns who vote for Orrin Hatch hold him up to their children as a role model? Or do they have a different set of standards for politics?
Many will come to Orrin’s defense by saying that both parties lie, conveniently forgetting for the moment that there are different kinds of lies. Anyone who has kids knows this. “There are lies and there are damned lies.” Good parents put some real thought into the subject in order to raise better, more honest kids.
So for those of you who would like to dismiss Orrin Hatch’s deliberate, unapologetic, and malicious lies with statements like; “all politicians lie,” I challenge you to grow up, get real. I ask you, did you VOTE for those other liars, or did you vote for Orrin Hatch the Liar?
Give me an example of where any Democratic Senator has perpetrated such a string of BIG lies as does Orrin Hatch, on the floor of the Senate or in print. And please use the same rules to evaluate lying as you might impart to your kids.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Orrin Hatch is a big fat liar and a disgrace to the US Senate, Utah Republicans and The State of Utah.
Republican/Teabagging Liars at CPAC, Starring Mitt Romney: Part 1 of 999
Posted by Cliff Lyon in Liars (politics), Lying, Maddow, Mitt Romney, National Politics, Republicans, Tea Bag Party on February 19, 2010
Mitt Romney is a LIAR
There was a time when no one in the media, mainstream or otherwise, would use the word liar or lying to describe Republicans. Rachel Maddow was the first, and I thank her for that.
Maddow has more guts and grit than the hairiest, gun-toting Republican, teabagging bigot out there. That’s why most of them are afraid to go on her show. Spineless to the last.
Most of all, Maddow does America the greatest favor by carefully documenting their lies.*
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
*It is surprising even to me, that Mitt Romney is perhaps the biggest liar of them all.
Recent Comments